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Thursday, January 2, 2014

Writing "Retirement" Board

I have four small bulletin boards in my room.  They are a challenge to plan for.  They are not big enough to display student work, so I struggle sometimes to keep them current and relevant for my students.
This year, in implementing Lucy Calkins' Units of Study, I needed to have an area in the front of the classroom to store visuals related to that program.  I call this bulletin board my "Writer's Block".  By the end of the first quarter it is pretty full with anchor charts, "Take to Your Seat" writing ideas (for  kids that couldn't come up with something to write about), other visuals and graphic organizers.

So what to do with all that stuff at the end of the quarter?  Lucy herself expressed it best.  We need to impress upon our students that they must remember everything they have learned previously when they embark on a new project in Writing.  So, in the back of the room, I created a Writing "Retirement" board.  This is where I put the most important evidence of learning from previous quarters.  Not everything goes on the retirement wall, otherwise it would be too full.  Using the bulletin board at the back of the room makes it easy for me to see and reference for my students. 

Towards the end of the second quarter, I have moved all the six traits describers to the Retirement board.  I have also moved the four levels chart.  I have two posters I made from the first quarter: a quote from Lucy and Show Don't Tell.  I replaced the "Ideas" descriptor from my rubric because the strategy of "show don't tell"  is the best method to add ideas to writing. 
This quarter we have been studying opinion writing, including the strong organizational components of a strong thesis statement, reasons, evidence, and conclusion.  I will probably take down the organizational poster and replace it with the graphic organizer we have been using during this unit.
How do help students remember the important things you have taught without having too much "eye clutter" for your students?